According to the export data in 2022, the domestic butanone export volume from January to October totaled 225600 tons, an increase of 92.44% over the same period last year, reaching the highest level in the same period in nearly six years. Only February’s exports were lower than last year’s, while January, March, April, May and June were higher than the same period last year. The reason for the sharp increase in exports compared with last year is that the international epidemic will continue to ferment in 2021, especially in Southeast Asia and other regions, and the operating load of downstream butanone plants is low, which limits the demand for butanone. In addition, foreign butanone units operate normally without unit maintenance, and foreign supply is relatively stable, so last year’s butanone export volume was sluggish. In the first half of this year, affected by the outbreak of the Russian Ukrainian war, Europe was short of supply due to hot weather, which led to a sharp rise in prices and widened the price difference with the domestic market. There was a certain arbitrage space to increase the enthusiasm of domestic enterprises for export; In addition, affected by the shutdown of two butanone plants of Marusan Petrochemical and Dongran Chemical, overseas supply is tightening and demand is turning to the Chinese market.
In terms of price comparison, the average monthly price of butanone export from January to October 2022 was more than 1539.86 US dollars/ton, an increase of 444.16 US dollars/ton compared with the same period last year, and showed an overall upward trend.
From the perspective of export trade partners, China’s butanone exports from January to October in 2022 will mainly go to East Asia, Southeast Asia, Europe, America and other countries, and the export pattern is basically the same as that in previous years. The top three countries are South Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia, accounting for 30%, 15% and 15% respectively. Exports to Southeast Asia accounted for 37% in total. In recent years, with the expansion of exports to Central and South Asia, Europe and the United States, butanone exports continue to break through, and the export scale continues to expand.

According to the statistics of export registration place, Shandong Province will have the largest export volume of butanone in 2022, with the export volume up to 158519.9 tons, accounting for 70%. The region has Qixiang Tengda 260000 t/a butanone plant with the largest butanone production capacity in China and Shandong Dongming Lishu 40000 t/a butanone plant, among which Shandong Qixiang is a major domestic butanone exporter. The second is Guangdong Province, with an export volume of 28618 tons, accounting for about 13%.